The present relates to improvements in dentistry practice wherein, more particularly, the improvements render totally safe a typical dental tooth-drilling procedure in regard to transmitting the HIV virus resulting in AIDS.
The high risk of contracting AIDS by a dental patient is well understood because it is almost unavoidable that, during a typical tooth-drilling procedure, the blood of the patient will be present in the patient's mouth and for the drill components, because of their proximity to the patient's mouth, to become infused, by splattering or otherwise, with drops or other small quantities of the patient's blood. Accordingly, all advanced sterilizing techniques, including steam autoclaving, are utilized on the drill components in between sequential uses. This is mistakenly believed to either solve the problem, or to be the best available solution.
Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a safe tooth-drilling procedure overcoming the foregoing and other shortcomings of the prior art. More particularly, it is an object to obviate the transmission of the HIV virus among dental patients of a typical practicing dentist, who will usually typically have 200 patients, using the within inventive method, as all is explained and described in greater detail subsequently herein.
Underlying the method of the present invention is the recognition that all known current methods of sterilizing and preparing dental drill components, e.g. a drill burr, are inadequate to remove all fluids which might contain the HIV virus which results in AIDS. It has been determined, for example, that even after autoclaving there is still some residual fluid, particularly in the crevices of the burrs. These residual fluids can contain the HIV virus, and thus inadvertently transmit this virus from one patient to a subsequent patient exposed to the dental drill components. The consequences of this contamination spreading the HIV virus which results in AIDS is effectively obviated by confining the use of the dental drill components to a patient or a patient's family group in which the HIV virus is non-existent and, therefore, incapable of being transmitted.